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37/ 



PORTRAITS 



OF 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 



F^l. 



Article fi'om the "Re\rue Contemporaine, " Paris, 
Vol, XXIV, Part 5. 



Translated 

by 
E. D, York. 

-0- 



/r^/ 



Portraits of Chr is t opher Columb us.. 



(From the "Revue ContomporainG, "Paris, Vol^ XXIV, 
Part 95. Translated by E. D. York.)* 



"The Lord," says Christ uphcr Columbias himself 
in his "Prophecies," written toward the end of his 
life, "has blessed me abundantly with the knov/-- 
ledge of marine things. Of the science of the 
stars he has given me that v/hich woxild stiff ice; 
so also of geometry and arithmetic. Besides, he 
has granted me the mind and skill to drav; globes 
and place upon them in their proper places the 
various cities, rivers and mountains. I have 
studied all sorts of writings: history, the 
chronicles, philosophy, and some other arts for 
w^hich Uur Lord quickened my intelligence and 
understanding. " 



2. 

That which Coluiribus tell^ us about his 
studies is nearly all that v/c loiow about the mat- 
ter. One of his letters to Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella shows us that to the theories of the period 
l-io joined an experience of tv;enty-three years of 
navigation; that he had scon all the Levant, the 
Occident and tlie Ilorth; that he had visited Eng- 
land and made several voyages to Lisbon and the 
coasts of Guinea. "He also speaks himself of an 
excursion that he made to Chios, and of an expe- 
dition to Tunis of w?iich he was given charge by 
King Rene' of Anjou. But of all those divers 
voyages we possess no precise inforrriation suf- 
ficient to I'ix the dates, still less the circum- 
stances. His son docs indeed state that Columbus 
was at Lisbon in 1470, but he neglected to go into 
any details. Finally, thox'O has been preserved 



the correspondence which he bo/^an, about 1474, 
with the famous Toscanelli of Florence, in regard 
to tliG project of sailing v/estvmrd to reach the 
East and the countries of India. The imagination 
of this great physician, inspired by roadixig the 
writings of I.iarco Polo, dreamed of an easy com- 
munication between Europe and Asia, and he willingly 
echoed the ideas of Columbus. But these precious 
documents do not tear away the vail v/hicli conceals 
the first active years of the Genovese navigator; 
and, as Iluiriboldt has remarked, we can only lament 
the uncertainty v/hich clouds everything until wo 
come to that part of this interesting life towards 
the year 1487. This regret is increased v/hon vie 
recall all that the chroniclers have preserved so 
minutely aboiit the dwarf of King Stanislas of 
Poland, the dog Bocerillo or the elephant Aboulaba- 



bat which the Caliph sent to Charlemagne. 

And although Colmnbus himsell" vn'ote twice in 
his will tiiat he v/as born at Genoa several writers 
have claimed to have good reasons for disputing 
still about the place of his birth, until M. 
Roselli, who published two volixmes about Columbus, 
closed the arena to all disputes by giving tl-ie most 
conclusive proof in favor of Genoa. llothing is 
certain about his family, nor is anything certainly 
kno\Tn about the period of his birth. Eernaldez, 
llapione, Navarrete and Humboldt claim it for 1436, 
or thereabouts, and they arc cogent authorities; 
but seven or eiglit biographers or commentators, 
v;ho discuss the question, make this date to vary 
from 1430 to 1455, each giving in his ov/n vmy some 
evidence. It is only in 1487 that the life of 
Coliimbus is opened to daylight. Finally, after 



tv/enty years of meditation and calculation, this 
intrepid navigator v/ho could not be broken down 
by public clamor nor tlie huiniliating refusals of 
Princes, nor by the terrors of unknown seas, began 
his First Voyage from the bar of Salto (Palos) for 
the Discovery of the Nev/ World on Aiigus t 5, 1492. 
He undertook the Second, from the port of Cadiz, 
September 25th of the follov/ing year; the Third 
from San Lucar, Hay 30, 14-98; the Foui'th and last 
from Cadiz on T.iay 9, 15U2, and died at Valladolid 
Iviay 20, 1506, on Ascension I^ay. So far as con- 
cerns his early education, and the first deeds of 
his busy life, we encounter, hov/ever, only vague 
notions and some general characteristics. 

Tlie data as to his actual likeness are also 
incomplete; the portraits are numerous, but of 
obscure origin, contradictory or insignificant. 



6. 

The most ancient enf?:*aving in date which 
represents him is that in the "Eloges" of Paolo 
Giovio. The next is in the "Great and Small 
Voyages" of De Ery. 

These two types, entirely unlike, and each 
of which excludes the other, have been frequently 
reproduced and much changed in passing through 
successive copies. 

Tv;o other tiT^s, less contradictory, but not 
less altered in time under the brush or graver 
of the copyists are:- one in the "Studij" at 
Florence, and the other in the Collection of 
Ambras, in Austria. 

A large number of portraits of Goluiribus come 
in a more or less immediate way from these four 
types; if it is really necessary to count four, 
and if the first and last, with some sli£^it dif- 



7. 

ferences, can not with a little help bo found to 
bG really one with that of Florence. This last 
painting, the least improbable of all, may be the 
mother likeness from which most of tlie variations 
proceed. 

One will at once see what value is to be 
attached to the portrait in the "Great and Snail 
Voyages," after which grotxp themselves, v/ith as 
little authority, fancies of the Cosmo graplaer of 
Henry III, the good The vet, and of Parmegiano at 
Naples; the mistakes of tlie cabinets of the 
Palaces of Veraguas and of Berwick at Madrid; the 
wretched and positive type of a bust in the Ducal 
Palace at Genoa, and some others, apochryphal and 
quite as impossible. Such are the portraits with 
or v/ithout a cuirass, a r-uff, hair close-cut or 
curly, a beard and moviataches, scattered in Havana, 



Y/asliington, Vicenza, and on the Gonovese coast; 
v;ithoiit counting that other imaGC , more bizarre 
still, engraved in profile, stippled, by one 
called Giacomo Zatta, with hair in disorder, the 
nose in the air, the neck stretched, the siiirt 
collar tnrned down:- costume of 1792. 

To conclude, the great Ilavigator has been 
depicted under every aspect, and we have more repre- 
sentations of Christopher than we have had of false 
Dauphins . 

In examining this mass of contradictory 
matter one scarcely knoT;-s where to begin, but \re 
will endeavor to find some clue to the labyrinth. 



'*7 !*<:+• 



8. 
1. 

Portrait of the_ Versailles Gallery , 
engraved by the_ Brothers De Bit ^ by Mercuri . 



Disdain of the best established histor- 
ical traditions could hardly go farther than in 
attributing to Christopher Columbus that indescrib- 
able heavy Flemish or Swiss face of the Versailles 
Gallery, reproduced by M. Gavard. The attention 
should not be distracted by the chains, and at- 
tributes, which in the engraving witli the letter 
surround the image and make the narae of Golujiibus. 
These are accessories which do not appear on the 
original v/ooden panel, ornaments added by tlie 
fancy of the engraver in allusion to the irons 
with which the Admiral was burdened in America, 
vftien he was sent back to Spain, and which his son 



9. 

states he had seen suspended in the house of the 
hero. And, indeed, this flagrant apocliryphal 
production has been honored by being engraved by 
the hand of Paolo Mercuri, the Roman, It is an 
admirable engraving, and one of the niaster-pieces 
of that artist among all the others he has produced. 
Reason the more to take energetic measures, once 
for all, to do justice to error and forewarn the 
friends of tinith against the seductions of talent. 

There are some accredited falsehoods, 
before v^hich we pass without looking at them, and 
which it is only necessary to attack once, in 
front, to make them vanidi, Tlaere are otliers to 
which time seems to have given all the riglits of 
truth, and v/hich resist the most authoritative 
criticisms. We should say that the apochryphal 
picture in question belonged to the latter class. 
In fact, it is a traditional error, coming down 



10. 

to us from the 14th century, and the same portrait 
1-iad been engraved nine times upon copper before 
receiving a sort of nev; consecration from the 
burin of Mercuri. \Ve are then justified in eoift- 
mencing vath this picture. 

It has been engraved :- 

1. At Frankfort, in 1519, in the fifth 
part of the "Great and anall Voyages of De Bry." 
(See Note 1, p. 4, vdiore it is stated that the same 
portrait v;as inserted by the brothers De Bry in 
their Collection of Portraits of Great Men, pub- 
lished in 1597, Ho.l.) 

2. In the"Biblioteca chalcographica" 
of J. Boissard. (PranJcfort, 1650-1G64. 9 parts 
in 3 vols. 4- to.) 

3. In 1GS2, by Isaac Bullart, in 
"Academie des Scioices et des Arts," containing 
the lives and historical eulogies of illustrious 



11. 

men, Paris, 2 vols, in fol. 

4. In 1C88, by D. Pauli Freheri, in 
"Theatrum viroriJm e ruditione clarornam, "etc. 
Noribergae, in- fol., Vol, 2, p.G6. 

5, In a plate of six portraits, en- 
graved small, by a Geniian named Azelt, who was the 
author of counterfeit portraitures according to 
Leonard Gaultier. 

6, In the Collection of Etienne Des- 
rochers. He belonged to the Royal Academy of 
Painting and Sculpture, and died March 8, 1741, 
He was an engraver and publisher of portraits. 

7. At the head of the "Historical 
Eulogy" of Christopher Columbus, printed in 1781 
by Bodoni v;ith that of Andrea Doria, 

S, At the head of the Italian "Life 
of Columbus," by the Chevalier Luigi Bossi, printed 
in Milan in 1818. 

9, Finally, engraved in Italy, possibly 



12. 

separately or possibly for an unknown work. 

The engraving of the magnificent collect- 
ion of "Great and Snail Voyages" is well executed 
and is signed with the monogram of Hans, ie_. Jean 
de Bry, son of Theodore, one of the line engrav- 
ers, editors and publishers of Liege, established 
at Frankfort in 1570, to iitiom the Collection is 
due. The fig-orp has this peculiarity, that it 
has two warts on the left cheek, which have not 
been reproduced in the imitations. It is sur- 
rounded v/ith one of those frames of arabesque, 
intermingled with apes, flov/ers, butter flies, 
coleoptera, by which the De Bry's encircled their- 
portraits, after the fashion of the i:narginal 
decorations of books of devotion. This frame is 
round in shape, vrith legends and Latin verses, 
Aroxmd it are these words :- 

" Ch ris tophorus Columbus ligur Indiarura 
inventor. Anno 1492." 



13. 



Above the image is the following verse :- 

"Qui rate velivola Occidu os pene travi^t ad Indos, 
Prinms et Americsm nobilitavit huxmam." 
Underneath is the following verse :- 

"Astrori;in consultu s et ipso nobi 1 is ausu 
Christophoms tali fronte Coluiiibus erat," 



The second engraving is by Jean Theodore 
de Bry. It is the counterproof, firmly executed, 
of the first, minvis the accessories in the framing, 
but with the same quatrain, the verses being re- 
united under the portrait, and are signed Tt. 



The third is a mediocre engraving with 
a burin, an imitation of those of the brothers 
de Bry, 



14. 



The fovirth is a small effigy of the most 
ordinary character, like all the engravings of 
Freheiuis, v;hose two volu-mes c6ntain in 32 engraved 
plates 312 small portraits of the same strength, 
but without the gravers naiiie; but nothing is to 
be disdained in iconography. 



That of the "Eulogy of Columbus" is an 
etching, rapidly and carelessly executed by Rosas- 
pina, in the shape of a medallion, and printed at 
the top of the first page of the "Eulogy of the 
Admiral," 



The eighth engraving, given by the Cheva- 
lier Bossi, is of the feeblest execution. It is 
from the burin and has this curious peculiarity, 



15. 

that above the principal portx-ait another is given 
as a variant. Tliis other Golunibus, Mihich has 
been reprodticed by Antonio de Herrera, and comes 
originally from the sane Voyages of the brothers 
de Bry, in a very distant r.ianner resanbles some- 
what the portrait in the Collection of Ambr-as. 

One named Germano Scot to is guilty of the 
other Italian engraving, virhidi is a bad imitation 
executed after a drawing by Belloni. In order to 
vary it the artist has taken it upon himself to 
give his Mero a light moustache. Save for this 
vmfortunate addition it is the identical type of 
the "Great and Small Voyages," which has been, only 
quite recently, chosen by one of the last descend- 
ants of the illustrious Admiral to be placed at 
the begimiing of a voluine of researches and new 
documents about Columbus. 

(Patria e biografia del grande aramiraglio 



16. 



D Cristoforo Colombo de Conti e signori di Guccaro, 
castello della Liguria nel Monferrato, scopritor 
dell' America, rischiarita e comprovata dai celebi-i 
scrittori Gio. Francesco conte Ilapione di Goconato 
e Vicenzo de Gonti, auto re della storia del Mon- 
ferrato, coll aggiunta di nuovi documenti e 
schiarimenti. Roma, 1853-1854. The portrait 
is engraved by Gius-no Carocci.) 

Y/hat can be alleged in favor of this typtf;"? 

Tlieodore de Bry, in his notice to the 

Reader which accompanies the portrait, states that 

it is an image that the King and Queen of Gas ti lie 

had taken from life by an excellent painter, in 

order to preserve a souvenir of Goluinbus if he did 

not return from his First Expedition. 

("Quoniam auten ille Columbus vir erat 
cordatus magnique ingenii et animi, rex et regina 
Castiliae antequam ab ipsis discederet, ejus _ _ 
effigiem ab eximio aliquo pictore ad vivum exprimi 
jusserunt, ut si ab ilia expoditione non rediret 
aliquod ejus monumentum apud se haberent." Grands 
et petits Voyages, t. 11, part.V, p.l.) 

"The fourth book, \^ich goes before, was 

completed," he says, "when, quite recently, I had 

the pleasure, which I vash you to share, of finding 



17. 

myself in possession of a copy of this portrait 
through the assistance of a friend of mine who 
had it from the painter himself. Therefore, I 
have had engraved in a small form, upon copper, 
by my son, wi1ii as much accuracy as he could 
possibly do it, this likeness that is presented 

in this book." 

("Hujus autem cffigiei exemplar nuper 
post absolutum quartum librum superiorem a quodam 
ainico meo, que illud ab ipso pictore acceperat 
rnagno cum gaudio nactus sum, cujus te quoque par- 
ticipem facere volui, atque in hanc finem earn 
effigiem a filio meo exigu& forma, quam fieri 
potuit perfectissime, in aes incidi curavi, quam 
et tibi hoc libro offero atque exhibeo, et revera 
digna viri virtus cujus imago bonorum oculis 
obversetm-," Id. ibid.) 

It may be added, impartially, that the painting of 
Versailles, engraved by Mercuri , is upon a small 
panel of wood, of the usual size of portraits 
painted for collections in the 15th and 16th 
centuries; that it well represents a man of that 
period, and that the costume and the absence of 



IS. 

side-whiskers and moustache are equally of that age. 

Copy or original, this painting, bought 
at Brussels in 1833, is, it is true, neiliier Span- 
ish nor Italian; it is Plani^, But this v/ould 
not be a reason for challenging it, because the 
school of Jean of Bruges, otl:erv7ise called Van Eyck 
(Jan van Eyck, a painter of the Flanish school, 
born 1366-1400. E.D.Y,-) shone at that period in 
all Europe. Van Eyck himself had been in Portugal, 
and some of his pupils visited Spain. Christopher 
Columbus might then have sat for a Flemish painter, 
either travelling or established in Spain. 

But if, as Theodore de Bry states, the 
portrait v;as ordered by Ferdinand and Isabella, 
hovf can we admit v/i thout great surprise that these 
sovereigns gave the preference to a Flemish artist, 
when so many national painters flourished then, 
when there existed at the court royal painters 
with official positions, always jealous of fulfill- 



19. 

ing their duties in those times when each and ewei^y- 
thing had its najae and place? 

Tliis was the epoch of the celebrated 
Antonio del Rincon, a man of approved talent. 
He was bom about 1446 at Guadalaxara, studied at 
Rome, and died about 1500 at Madrid or Seville, 
According to common repute he was made Chevalier 
of St, James, and he acquired a great name, above 
all as a painter of portraits. The time viien 
he was most in vogue seems to have been the year 
1483, His paintings are rare now, A number 
were burned in the Pardo in 1G08, The Museum at 
Madrid possesses none. Precious details in re- 
gard to the Spanish painters and sculptors of the 
end of the 15th century, and the commencement of 
the 16th may be found in the "Diccionario de los 
Profesores de las Bellas Artes in Espana, " pub- 
lished in 1800, by Oean Pennudez, In vol,iv, 
p,197, there is an article upon Rincon, 



20. 

Rincon is regarded as the founder of the 
Spanish school, and was the first painter of the 
Catholic Kings. There may h^ seen,, in the Gablr^t 
of a Spanish Grandee, the Marquis of Miraflores, 
a portrait of Queen Isabella, painted upon a small 
panel by this artist. Before the wars of the 
Qnpire there was at Toledo, on the top of the altar 
screen of the Ohruch of San Juan de los Reyes, the 
tvdn portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella from his 
brush, lost to-day, but of ^±ch copies are in 
existence. Kis work was extensive, and particular 
mention is made of a history of the Virgin, in seven 
panels, painted on the altar- sere en of Ghavela, 
and in which he introduced some portraits. 

This was also the tine of Pedro Berru- 
guete, father of the famous Alonzo, sctilptor, paint- 
er and architect of Charles V. 

(Pedro Berrugjiete was painter of Philip 
1st. Ke was at the heiglit of his talent in 1483, 



21. 



enjoyed a great renovm, and it is supposed died 
before 1500, Alfonzo, his son, bom at Paredes 
de Nava, about 1480, studied at Rome in 1504, and 
several pages would hardly suffice for a list of 
his Y/orks. ?le ornamented wi tii sculptures and 
admirable paintings the famous altar screen of the 
college of the Archbishop of the city of Salamanca, 
which counted twenty-one colleges full of treasiu-es 
of art. The last woi'ks of this artist were cover- 
ed with gold by the curioLis. The Cathedral of 
Toledo abounds in his works. There is by him an 
admirable Transfiguration in marble, a Saint Leo- 
cadia, a Saint Eugenie, obc. He died in Madrid 
in 1545,") 

There was also the Arragonian Aponte, 
painter in ordinary to the Spanisli Grovm, of whom 
some tableaux are preserved, somev;hat after the 
Gothic style, but quite as remarkable from the 
design as from the finish of the accessories, the 
costume, the architecture, &c. A beautiful 
monument of art, the grand altar screen of the 
great altar of the Church of San Lorenzo at Huesca, 
in Aragon, is by him. 

There v/as in Gastille also a Sebastian 
d'Aponte, v;ho was a sculptor. 



Shortly after flourished Fernando Gallegos, 
considered by some artists as the Albrecht Durer 
of Spain, and who produced some very beautiful 
portraits, whose size and execution recall the 
portraits of Durer or of Holbein. 

(Gallegos was born at Salamanca in the 
latter part of the 15th Centm-y, and died at a 
very advanced a. e in 1550. ---^-.^rr;." 

^^re^bl^u^up^n rr^^ich decorated the O^pel 
IS one v-cu . . ..r n^'updr-al of Salamanca.) 

of St. Clement m the Cav^nearax oi ^a 

There was also in the Ghm-ch of tlie 
convent of Santa Cruz of Segovia, of vAaich Fer- 
dinand and Isabella were the renovators, the young 
catholic Kins and Queen, painted kneeling before 
the Holy Virgin, with their two first children, 
Don Juan and Dona Isabella. It is an excellent 
tableau, from an unknown hand, but certainly 
Spanish, and^ is placed now under that title in 
the National I/oiseurn at Madrid. The heads are 
about tliree inches large. 



23. 

Next may be noted, thovigh far from being 
contemporaneous wi tii Christopher ColWiibus, the 
publication of the "Great and Small Voyages," in 
which appeared the portraits we criticise, v;hich, 
ancient though it be, was 91 years after the death 
of the Adiiiiral. Not so many as that are needed 
to lead to many errors and great confusion. The 
Conservator of the I/Toseam at Versailles permits 
me to state that this portrait will be stricken 
from the authentic ones in his Catalogue. 

And in fact, one only needs to cast an 
eye upon the effigy. Could that round head, this 
jovial mask, that flat-nosed and Rabelaisian stump, 
those half-circular eyebrov/s, have ever been the 
attributes of the Ligurian race? There ai-e 
better ones; the v;hole thing, and these details, 
are in entire opposition to the written portraits 
that have been left of the Genovese Navigator bjr 



24. 

his ovm son, Don Pemando Colombo, and by Gonzalo 
Hernandez de Ovi odo y Valdez, v;ho had personally 
known the Admiral on his retuni from his Second 

Voyage. 

(Don Pemando Colombo embi-aced tlie eccle- 
siastical profession about 1530, and was passionate- 
ly fond of study. He formed at Seville, v/here he 
^vas established, a library of more than 20,000 
volumes, both printed and rare manuscripts, which 
he left to the City of Seville, and which was 
called La Colonibina. This library still exists 
under that name' ^t.lany of the books .vhich compose 
it have the margins covered with his annotations, 
among others Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Suetonius, ~ 
Titixs-Livy, Lucan, Lucretius, Saxo Grammatieus, 
Seneca the tragic poet. How he would have been 
strtTch, he the son of the great Columbus, wi tii the 
strange and famous prediction of Seneca, commenting 
in poltry on the opinion of Eratosthenes and Strabo. 

Venient annis 

Saecula'seris, quibus Oceanus 
VincLila reinim laxet, et ingens 
Pateat tdlus, Typhisque novos 
Detegat orbes, nee sit terris 
Ultima- Thule. 

Act 11 of the Medusa, v. 371. 



25. 

It is evident that a sii-nple description 
would not suffice for an artist to make a portrait 
which should resemble the subject; the least pencil 
touch from nature would always be better; tut, on 
the contrary, it can not be denied that a good de- 
scription may be an excellent means of assuring 
the authenticity of any given portrait. Therefore, 
let us see the portraits in writing v*iich we pos- 
sess of Christopher Columbus, and which were prob- 
ably unknown to Theodore de Bry, 

Let us begin with Oviedo, v/ho was fifteen 
years old when the Admiral came back from his first 
voyage, and who witnessed his triumph at Barcelona. 
Raised among the pages of the Infante Don Juan, it 
is hardly probable tliat in describing the general 
appearance of his hero he would have neglected to 
say anything about the portrait ordered by Fe3>- 
dinand and Isabella, if such an order was an 



26, 

acti.ial fact. However, he does not say a v;ord 

about i t , 

"Golyunbus," he va-ites, "a man of honest 
parents and a good life, had a noble bearing, a- 
good look, and a height above the medium, which was 
well carried; he load sharp eyes, and the other 
parts of his visage well proportioned; his hair 
was fiery red, the complexion flushed and marked 
with freckles; his language was easy, prudent, 
and showing a great genius, and he was noble in 
manner, aiid gracious v/hen- inclined," 

("Hombre de honestos parientes y vida, 
de buena estatura y aspect© ; mas alte que mediano 
y de rezios miembros: los ojos bivos, y las otras 
partes del rosti-o de buena proporcion: el cabello 
may bermejo: y la cara algo encendida y pecosa, 
bien hablado, cauto y de gran ingenio, y gentilla- 
tino gracioso qiiando queria." Goncalo Her- 
nandez de Oviedo y Valdes. La Hysteria natural 
y general de las Indias, Yslas y tierra finne del 
mar Oce^o. Sevilla, 1535, in-fol., lib.H, cap. 11, 
folio 11, au verso.) 

This edition is printed in Gothic,- The 
first, also Gothic, was published at Toledo, 1526, 
in-folio. The discovery of a new maniiscript of 
Oviedo has permitted U, Amador de los Rios to pub- 
lish a nc\r edition of this author, under the direct- 
ion of the Academy of Madrid, v;hich is increased by 
thr ee vo lume s in- f o 1 io ,• 

In his tui'n, in the "History of Christo- 
pher Columbus," of \vhich it is not quite certain 



27. 

that the Oastilian text, now lost, has ever been 

published, and vdiich has escaped all the researches 

in the libraries of Paris as well as Madrid, but 

v/hidi, nevertheless, has been preserved to us in 

an Italian translation, Don Fernando thvis paints 

his father:- 

"The Admiral was a well made man, of a 
height above the medium, vdth a long face and 
cheek bones somewhat prominent; neither too fat, 
nor too lean. He had an aquiline nose, light 
colored eyes and a flushed (or ruddy) complexion. 
In his youth he had been a blonde; but after he 
was thirty years old his hair whitened. In eating 
and drinking he was sobriety itself, as v;ell as 
simple and modest about his pei'son," 

To this evidence v/e can add tliat of 
three other witnesses. Certainly, they are not 
contanporary authors, but the first, Francisco 
Lopez de Gomara (bom in Seville, in 1510) spent 
four years in America gathering information in 
order to write a complete account of the '^onquest 
of the Indies. f^omara says: 

"Columbus was a man of fine stature. 



I 



io , 



strong of limb, with an elongated visage, fresh 
and iiiddy in complexion, mrked with freckles." 

("L'Ainmiraglio fu uoino di ben formata, 
& piu Che mediocre statura, di volto longo & di 
g^ancie vn poco alte, sensa che declinacse a grasso, 
o niaci lento. Haveua il naso aquilino, S: gli occhi 
bianchi; bianco, & acceso di vivo colore. Nella 
sua gioventu, hebbe i capelli biondi, benche, giunto 
che fu a trenta anni, tutti gli divennero bianchi. 
Nel mangiare & nel be re, <£ anco nel I'adornainento 
della sua persona fu molto continente & modesto." 
Historic del S. D. Fernando Colombo, nelle cjaali 
s'ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, Cz de 
fatti dell' Aii-niiraglio D. Cristoforo Colombo, 3uo 
padre, etc. Nuovamonte di lingua spagnuola tradotte 
nell italiana, dal sig. Alfonso Ulloa. In Venetia 
M.D.L.XXI. Appresso francesco de' Prances chi 
sanese, cap.lll, p.V, 

A second edition of this book appeared 
in 1614, Gotolendi published a French translation 
at Paris in 1681, in 12 mo.) 

The second, Girolamo Benzoni, a Milanese, 
born in 1519, sailed for America tliirty-five years 
after the death of Columbus, in 1541, aM passed 
fourteen years there, and doubtless found still 
there some of the companions of the illustrious 
Almirante mayor del Ma£ Oceano . He says, in his 
"Histoiv of the New V/orld" :- 



29 



"He was a man of good and reasonable 
statui-e, well formed and muscular in all his limbs, 
of upright judgment, noble-minded, and distinguished 
in appearance. He had keen eyes, auburn hair, 
the nose aquiline and the mouth rather large. He 
was above all a lovor of justice, b^it quick in 
anger when there was reason for it," 

( Pol, 15 b, "Gristofano Colombo fa 
uomo di bona statvira raggionevole, di sani & 
gagliardi membri, di buon giudicio, d'alto ingegno, 
di gentile aspetto; haueua gli occhi viui y capelli 
rossi, il naso aquilino, 5: la bocca vn poco grande, 
& soprattxtto era della Giustitia amico; pero 
iracundo quando si sdegnaua," La Historia del 
miando nvovo di Girolarao Benzoni, milanese, laqual 
tratta delle isole & mare nuovamente ritrouati et 
delle nuove citta da lui proprio vedute, per acqua 
& per terra in quattordici anni. In Venetia, 
Fv Rarapazetto, 1565, ou Pratelli Tini, 1572, 
petit in-8°, fig. Get ouvrage a ete traduit en 
latin et en francais par Urbain Ghauveton, en 
1579, a Gendve,) ' 

This ;York was translated into Latin, and 
into French by Urbain Ghauveton, in 1579, at 
Geneva, 

The third witness, Antonio Taniesillas 
de Herrera, worked in the archives of the Council 
of the Indies, upon contempei'aneous documents, and 
his wonderful accuracy gives him all the authority 
of an occular witness,- He says:- 



JO. 



"Ghi'istophcr Goluiribus was tall in stature, 
in visage lone and imposing; his nose was aqailine, 
his eyes blue, his fair complexion bordering on a 
fiery red, the beard and the hair red in his youth, 
but at a very early age it v;as blanched by his 
laboi'S He was gracious and gay in disposition, 

and has an easy and eloquent speech, grave with 
moderation, affable to strangers; at home lie was 
kind and gracious, uniting a tcanpered gravity with 
a discreet conversation, and knew how to easily 
gain the friendship of those whom he met." 

("Pue D, Chris toval Colon alto de cueiTpo, 
el rostro luengo, y autoricado, la nariz aguilena, 
los ojos garcos, la color blanca, que tiraba a 
rojo encendido; la barba, i cabellos, qucoido era 
moco, rubies, puesto que mui presto, con los 
trabajos, se le tomaron canos: i era gracioso, 
i alegre, biai hablado, i eloquaite. Era grave 
con moderacion, con los estrafios afable, con los 
de su casa suave, y placentero, con moderada 
gravedad, i discreta conversacion, i asi provocaba 
facilmente a los que le veian, a su amor." _ 

Deseripcion de las Indias occidentales de Antonio 
de Herrera coronista mayor de sv Magestad de las 
Indias, y su coronista de Gastilla. l-^jdrid N R. 
Franco, 1725-1726, in-folio. Decadal , lib.VI, 
cap .XV, P.' 167-168.) 

These written portraits are, certainly, 
authentic, well agreed and in perfect hamony. 
liow can they be adapted to the portraits of the 
brothers de Bry? How, vath the best wishes in 
the world, can we explain otherwise than by an 



31. 



error the preface of Theodore? 

independently of the portrait so often 
ensraved in the IGth and IVth Centuries, and befo.-e 
it was done by Mercnri. Scot to and Camcci, thex-e 
existed, in the Galleries at Versailles, another 
portrait of Colu^us. bought at the sale of 11. 
Hagnan. It is a s,„all painting upon wood, twelve 
centimetres hi^ and four wide. On the r i^^.t 
of the Pi = tv,re there is an inscription in Old 
Dutch of the folloiring inTport: 

-nhristopher Oolumbus, Grand Al^i^al of 
the Easte™ Seas, under .erdinand. ang of '.ast.le, 
first Discoverer of the Mew V/orld. 

The title of "Grand Admiral of the Eastern 
S2^,. is indeed that which Columbus received on 
his retu.. from his first voyage; but the portrait. 
Of vmicl. the forehead is entirely b^d, shows an 
age which Columbus had not attain.d. « recalls 
the traits of that in the Collection of Ambras. 



32. 

Toehold a figure which fails on account 
of the v/ant of hair. Tliis is not ordinarily the 
case with the apochryphal likenesses of ^olyunbus, 
which are generally crovmed with an abundant and 
black suit of hair. The Museiun of Rouen has not 
failed in this respect. It possesses two heads 
of the Admiral, one of v/hich liarj jet-black liair. 
The cxx'ious thing about them is that they are as 
dissimilar in feature as it is possible for tv/o 
pictures to be; and, being placed in the same 
snail hall, face to face, the contrast is a strik- 
ing one. One, in which the hair is gray and thin, 
the flesh rviddy and sanewhat livid, is an entirely 
modem canvass, natural size, signed P. T,e '^arpen- 
tier, v/ith this inscription: " nolv g-nbus Lygur nov i 
orbi s repertor ." It is the identical portrait of 
Florence, less themeritof execution, A note on 
the back of the canvass says that "This portrait 



iC-_ 



33. 

\7as copied in wax , in 1835, from the original 
picture of Sebastian del Piombo, which foimed a 
part of the Collection of the Escurial, and which 
is attributed by si tig learned persons to Antonio 
del Rincon. " The note adda also that the original 
portrait belonged to f.I. Vallee, editor, at Paris. 

It is clear that all this is founded on 
error. There has never been, in any of the long 
descriptions of the pictures in the Escurial, any 
mention of a portrait of Columbus, And besides 
the style of Sebastian del Piombo has no analogy 
with that of Rincon, 

The other portrait, a sharp and vigorous 
painting, broxight out by the first flying strokes 
of liie bru3h, shovild be according to the hand-book, 
a work of Ribera, called "L'Espagnolet, " bom 78 
years after the death of Columbus. The personage, 
young still, w^hich is also represented of the- 



34. 

natui^al size, haa an ebony mane, black eyes, vdth 
considerable color to the complexion and common 
but expressive features. It points a finder, 
smiling, at a sphere resting on a table with some 
books. The costume is that of the time of Louis 
XIII of Prance, or if one prefers of Philip IV of 
Spain. I do not dispute the name of the painter. 
As for the attribution to Columbus, that is a 
fantasy v/hich has been v/illingly conceded without 
other excuse or pretext than the introduction of 
a globe in the picture. It is like that picture ' 
of a Savant so long exhibited at the Hennitage 
of the Palace at St, Petersburg as an original 
likeness of Christopher Co1tjii±)U3; v/hen, in reality, 
it was only a v/ork of one of Rembrandt's pupils, 
Ferdinand Bol, born in IGIO, one l:wndred and four 
years after the death of the Genovese Navigator, 
All these Flemish portraits by unknown 
authors, and this portrait of Ribera, are of the 



35, 

most flagrantly apochryphal character. But 
v;hat can be put in their place? There the 
difficulty begins. 



36. 

II. 

Porti^aits of Christopher Columbus in Spain . 

M. Jomard, one of the most eminent 
members of the Institute, and Don Valentin car- 
derera, a Spanish painter, connoiseur and dis- 
tinguished antiquarian, Iriave made learned and minute 
researches in regard to portraits of Columbus; 
but the conclusion was perilous to them both. 
It was not, as we have seen above, that Spain was 
then destitute of artists. The arts v;ere even 
so highly honored that Qjieen Isabella had a wi de 
choice among the masters of one who should teach 
drawing to her :::on Don Juan, the one who di ed so 
young, 

(See Gleraencin. Ilustracion XIV al 
reinado de los iieycs Catolicos , p,384. It is a 
golden book, full of excellont authentic informa- 
tion. Glenencin v;as Librarian of the Royal 
Library of Madrid.) 



37. 

But it v/ould be a strange self-deception 
to judge, in the matter of Iconographic monuments, 
other peoples and other ages by oui'selves and 
modem times. To-day a fever of marble and bronze 
possesses ■us. Every city v/hich has been the 
birthplace of a useful citizen or a great man 
exerts itself to raise a statue to his memory, or 
at all events a bust; and by a noble use of the 
chisel and foundry a glorious national biography 
has been written in public places, as v/as formerly 
upon the gquares and in the temples of Sicyone, 
Athens and Rhodes, at Olympia and at Delphos, 

This example has been follov;eci to some 
extent by other nations than the French, But the 
15th and IGth 'Centuries, a happy period for sculpt- 
ure in Spain, v/cre far from being periods when 
triumphal statues, purely honorary in their charac- 
ter, v/ere erected as a mark of public recognition 
to illustrious or simply useful men. It was not 



even the custom for crovmGd heacls . There was nothing 
of the kind at Madrid, a new city, only built up 
at the end of the reign of Philip II; nothing at 
Seville, at Toledo, at Burgos, at Grenada, at 
Cordova; indeed, to speak more precisely, there 
v/as nothing of the sort in any country of Christ en- 
dom. Everywhere, religious or sepulchral sculpt- 
ure, little oi" no historical sculptia'e. It was 
later that Statxiary consecrated its apotheoses to 
great men, and that the Alcazar of Segovia was 
peopled v;ith the busts and portraits of the Spanish 
Kings, 

Outside of the aristocratic statues 
carved upon tombs in all parts of Spain, and for the 
most part forgotten for three cent\«'ies in the soli- 
t^ide of the old Monasteries of the 12th, 13th and 
14th Centuries, there are at Toledo and Burgos a 
goodly number of statues, but always erected in 
commemoration of seme i-eligious order or some 



39. 

princely event. Thus the otatuj of King St. 
Ferdinand, and that of his first v/ife Beatrice of 
Suabia, precious master-pieces of statuary in the 
Tuscan style, v;ere placed in the Cloister of the 
Cathedral of Eurgos to consecrate the memory of 
the marriage of Ferdinand in that ancient church. 
So, also, the magnificent statue of the French 
Bishop Maurice, that of the Infante Don Alfonzo, 
that of the Infantes of Cerda v/hic^ appears in the 
same Cloister, had as an obj ect the remanbrance 
of their presence at the laying of the first stone 
of the nev7 cathedral church built upon the site of 
the anc i cnt one ,• 

Howsoever important was the event of the 
Discovery of the Hew World by Christopher Columbus, 
it did not bring about, under the Catholic Kings, 
during the life time of that illustrious man, the 
erection of any monument whatever. At first these 



40. 



sovereigns showered upon him titles and material 
wealth; but, on his return from his Fourth Voyage, 
his protectress Isabella was no longer living, 
and the King, refusing to him even the favor of 
justice, left him to the most criiel abandonraait. 
Envy, and after his death, ingratitude, worked a 
long time to prevent the consecration of his monoiy, 
and no sepulchral sculpture was consecrated to his 

honor . 

Scarcely had he been dead a year, even, 
when already a Savant of St. Die, ^ipon the banks of 
the Meurthe, Waldseemuller, calling him Ylacomilus, 
threw a veil of scorn or ignorance over the Great 
Columbus, and gave the advice, which has been only 
too well observed dui-ing the succeeding centuries, to 
attribute the discoveries to the name of Americ^as 
Vespucius, a subaltern navigator. How tme it is 
that contemporaries very rarely have a clear under- 
standing of Hie events which carry them along on 



41. 

their fl'-od tide. A nxjmber of years later atill, 
the startling reports of the exploits of the Span- 
ist " Oonquistadores , " the enthusiasm excited by 
the fortunate expeditions of tlie Portugviese 
"Descubridores," obscured the fame of Columbus, 
and the first discoverer of Amei-ica becane, so far 
as Spain was concerned, only a vagiie souvenir. 

So, then, as a first point settled; 
there exists neither a statue nor a bust of Columbus 
made during his time. Nor is there any medal 
struck with his likeness, nor of any of his com- 
rades, nor of Cortez, 

(Cortez was born at Medellin, a small 
city of Estremadura, , in 1485; sailed for the 
Indies at the ago of 19, in the year of the last 
voyage of Columbus, He died Dec. 2, 1554, near 
Seville in the 73rd year of his age. There ex- 
ists in the Hospital of the " Puriciim Goncepcion 
de Jesus," at Mexico, a portrait of Hernando Cortez, 
iH ancient painting and said to be an original. 
The figure is on foot, wi tli abundant liair and a 
heavy beard. The body is clothed in a cuirass, 
witli a coat of mail. In his ric;ht hand i:^ a 
baton of command; in the other the hilt of his 
sword . Upon a table rests a helmet vdth plumes, 



4-2. 



and ix'on gauntlets. A copy of this portrait was 
made in July, 1836, from the original, by the 
Chevalier Loewenstem, and lithographed at Paris 
by LLanta, 

Another portrait of the same type, v/ith 
the hair somev;hat differently arranged, exists in 
the Museum of Mexico, 

This likeness may very well be a good 
one. Although born under the Catholic Kings 
Gortoz was a man of the reign of Charles V, viiich 
explains the beard in his portrait. There is still 
another likeness, engraved, so it is said, after 
a painting of Velasquez, wiiich exists in Spain, 
This figure, with a cap ( toque ) on its head, has 
all the depressing effect of a Cassandra.) 

If there still remain images of their 
contempoi'aries, the great Captain Gonzalvo de 
Cordova, and the Duke Antonio de Leyva, (the first 
born in 1443, and the second in 1480) it is be- 
cause both were engaged in the Italian wars and 
fo\«id in that country eager gravers of their por- 
traits. Yet engravers of medals v/ere not wanting 
in Spain, nearly all the coins with the effigy 
of Ferdinand and Isabella were, it is true, of 
Gothic v/orkmanship; but it must be remembered that 
the Royal Library of Madrid shov/s two very beauti- 



43. 
ftil medallions of tliat period, v;hich are believed 
to be from a Spaniah burin, and v/hich represait, 
one Ferdinand, and the other Isabella, 

According to the legend of an engraving 
published at Madrid in the last century, Antonio 
de Leyva, v/hose features were already known by a 
medal, must have been painted at Milan by Leonardo 
da Vinci, who in his old age also drew a portrait 
of Americus Vespucci, vAiose celebrity undoubtedly 
saved the likeness from destruction and oblivion. 
According to Vasari, the Great Gaptain, of whom 
there are besides sane Spani^ contanporary paint- 
ings, must have had at Venice the honor of a por- 
trait from the hand of Georgione, 

(In the work of Sclirenckius, entitled 
"Effigies augu s t i s s imo ru m imperatorum , baronum, 
duc'um, et c,, " the engravTngs are executc-d by dan 
Gustos. It is a large folio volume, containing 
a portrait of Gonzalvo on foot, fully armed, 

I am convinced, to make this Gonzalvo 
hannonize v/ith other effigies on foot, dan Gustos 
has fancifully extended the figure, which, in-the 
painting of Georgione, taken as a type, was 



44. 



represented as terminating at the middle of the 
body. This fact is brought out by the contrast 
of the perfection of the bust, in conformity v/ith 
all the monuments, and the imperfection of the re- 
mainder, \7hich lacks tl^t kind of " sayo , " or 
broidered jacket, which the Great Captain con- 
stantly wore. The artists of the period have 
alv/ays depicted hi::; with it, as they also represent 
Lautrec and the Duke of Nemours, killed at the 
battle of Ravenna, Therefore, from the bu^t do-sn, 
this portrait of Gonzalvo is only apochryphal , ) 

As for Christopher Columbus, on the one 
hand there is no v;ork in durable materials to be 
fovtnd; on the other the more perishable moni:iments 
of the brush are almost equally lacking. At least, 
there is nothing clearly contemporaneo^is nor au- 
thentic for Prance, as we shall see; and it is 
the same for Spain, beginning v/ith the Cabinet of 
the great-great nephew of the Admiral, the Duke of 
Veraguas (Don Pedro Colon) . 

(Don Fernando Colombo, in his History of 
his father, ch.l, says that the Admiral had, in 
Spain, changed his name to that of "Colon," His 
descendants in Spain have followed the same or- 
thography , ) 



45. 

The most ancient effigy which this Span- 
ish grandee possesses of his ancestoi' is on foot, 
and not in the fonn of a bust, like most portraits 
of that period. It indeed offers, if one is so 
inclined, some features vAaich vaguely correspond 
to the authentic descriptions; but the moustaches 
curled up at the ends (retroussees) , the ruff, the 
slashed dotiblet witli which it is rigged out, -which 
only became the fashion some sixty or eighty years 
after the death of Columbus, attest the fact that 
the portrait does not go farther back than the last 
part of the 16th Century. It is, on the whole, 
one of those trumpery historical portraits, of 
which great assortments were made during that period 
for the decoration of family galleries or for civil 
and religious corporations. Every gallery in a 
provincial castle or city palace had a long string 
of them, v/ith inscriptions more or less emphatic. 



46. 

and for the most part about as true as the features 
of the heroes they accompanied. 

As for the authenticity, it is tiie same 
with a great canvass which is in the possession of 
the DvUces of P.er^■7ick and Alba, at '^adrid, and which 
represents Columbus, a sword near at hand, seated 
in an elegant arm-chair, his shoulders covered vath 
a red tunic sown with golden flowers, with a ducal 
mantle of white silk broidered vath gold, and 
shoulder cape of ermine. 

This is no longer the figure of the 
Palace of Veraguas; tliis must be, it is said, the 
large copy of a small original portrait, painted 
upon wood, a little less than half the natural 
si^e, like most of the portraits of tiiat period, as 
was said above (they also painted on copper), and 
which mtist have been carried from Han ^^omingo to 
the Island of '^uba in 1795, and deposited with the 



47. 

mortal dust of ^olwnbus in the 'Cathedral of Havana. 

I fear that there is in this a double 
error. 

In the first place, the Berv,rick porti^it, 
disfigured by the obstinate anachronism of the 
moustaches, the ruff and other accessories of the 
fashion in vogue at the end of the 16th Century 
and the beginning of the 17th, carries its date 
in its very execution and is no more autiientic 
than the portrait of the House of Veraguas, If, 
then, the likeness of San Domingo, transferred to 
Havana, v/as analogous to this one, it is useless to 
waste tirne in cor-sidering it. 

But in aJ 1 these details matters of con- 
fusion are multiplied. It v/as not a Duke of 
Beirv/ick vrho sent the portrait of Oolumlus to re- 
join his remains at San Domingo, it v/as a DuJ^e of 
Veraguas, father of the present D-ake.. Ilavarrete 
formally attests the fact. 



43. 

("Goleccion de los viajes y descubri- 
mientos, que hicieron por mar los espanoles, desde 
fin del siglo XVI, t.II, p. 369, I.Iadrid, 1825.) 

Mov;, Vera^uas could not give what he did 
no1: himself possess; and, vmless the portrait 
sent wao of an entirely different type from that 
whicii he kept, it is presxmiable that it was a copy 
of the apochryphal one in his Palace. Tlie present 
Duke of Veraguas, who was present at the sending 
of it, and who has a vague remembrance of it, be- 
lieves that this portrait was a simple head, painted 
on wood, of the same size, and slTov/ing the same 
features as the effigies of Florence, the Library 
of Madrid and the Palace of the I.Iarquis Malpica, 
which will be considered later. It was tlaen a 
different portrait from that which remains in the 
Cabinet of the Duke, since the latter is on foot, 
as stated above. 

Unfortunately, this likeness is somewhat 
like the casa of the famous golden tooth, which. 



49. 

as eveiybody knov/s, grev/ in the mouth of 
child in 1593; everybody talks about it, but no 
one is in a position to verify it. Yet Sinion 
Goulard cites in his "Histoires prodigicuses 
de ce temps," a niojnber of persons who saw the 
tooth, and he tells the secret of it. 

But in the case of the effigy, the veri- 
fication is impossible, for I have made search 
in vain at San Domingo and at Havana, The only 
image of Columbus which exists in the Island of 
Cuba is a bust in marble, (jaite modern, pui'ely 
ideal, with an abmdant and curly head of hair-, a 
cuirass and double i-niff, figuring on the Mauseolcum 
in which the remains of the Great Navigator, trans- 
feiTred froa the GatlTedral, have been definitely 
deposited. This Mauseoleum is upon the Plaza 
d'Arrnas, where, according to tradition, stood an 
immense Geiba tree, under vjhicih Christopher Columbus 
catised the first mass over celebrated in the New 
V/orld to be said. 



50. 

This monument v/as erected in IS 22. About 
1843 I saw in the studio of the skilful sculptor 
Persico, at Naples, a beautiful group in marble, 
representing Columbus with an allegorical personage. 
The image was entirely ideal, and has not even the 
merit of reproducing the costume of the tome, be- 
cause Columbus is clothed in an armor \7hich is 
later by a centiiry. This group figures now on one 
of the facades of the Capitol at V/ashington, 

To conclude, the National Chalcography 
of Madrid comes to add to all these matters of 
confusion one more difficulty, in producing from 
the portx'ait of the House of Berwick a large en- 
graving by Rafael Esteve, after a drawing by the 
painter Galiano, viith this singular inscription: 

"The original picture was painted by 
Vanloo, in Amei'ica,'' (El cviadro origina l fue^ 
pintado, en America, por Vanloo. ) 

How, Jacques Vanl'O, the first of this 



51. 

name, the author of that line of painters, r;as 
born one hundred and oi^ht years after the death 
of ColujTibus, and neither ho noi* anyone of his 
descendants ever left the Old "World, 

The official portrait of the Archives 
of the Council of the Indies, at Seville, is a 
servile copy of the type of Verag\ias, 

Anothar engraving, v^hich canes from 
J. B. Munos, is only the reproduction of the same 
type. The Columbian Library itself, v;hi ch con- 
tains a quantity of portraits, possesses (can it 
be believed?) only one painting, pui-ely ideal, of 
the Admiral, which was presented to it some years 
ago by Louis Philippe. 

Of all the portraits painted of Christo- 
pher Columbus \7hich Spain contains, the most 
ancient is the one in the Royal Library at Madrid, 
It is a bust with straight, thin and white hair. 



52. 



and which, so far as the features are concerned, 
corresponds well enough to the contemporaneous 
descriptions, to which reference has been made. 
The neck is partly uncovered. The edge of the 
shirt, which is covered by a doublet, or rather 
a sort of black vest, is jtist visible, disappearing 
under a dark green mantle or cloak, crossed in 
front, Tlie personage appears to be over fifty- 
five years of age; one woiold evon say that he had 
passed the age attained by Gol\«i:ibus. High up, 
in the background, may be i^ead this description; 

"Cristoforus lygur novi orbis repertor , " 
Next we come to a portrait of nearly the 
same epoch, which belongs to the fanily of the 
Marquis Malpica, It has the same inscription. 

Both of these, executed of the saiie size, 
upon small panels, towards the middle of the IGth 
Century, ai^e copies of a type evidently identical. 



53. 

Only the fii-st has a less bushy head of hair, and 
it is impressed v/ith a peculiar expression of sad- 
ness v/hich the second does not possess. It inay 
have been a caprice or accident of the bi^nish. 

It must be that Doctor Ilavarrete had a 
predilection for the portrait in the Library of 
Madrid, since that is the one he chose to have 
placed at the head of his Collection of Voyages 
and Maritime Discoveries of the Spaniards of the 
end of the 15th Century. But he lias no vdiere 
given the reasons for this preference. 

In evei-y case, the type of these two 
portraits is that I.Iot her- image, of v;hich mention 
was ri-u2.de in the beginning, and which is in the 
Uffizi Gallery of Florence. The dimension of the 
latter is the satiie. The inscription upon the 
background of the painting is equally the same. 
We shall meet elsewhere the same type. Unfortvinato. 
ly, we do not find the original anyi^vhere; the 



■'34. 

portrait at Florence is itself only one of the 
copies made in compDiance vn. th an order of Cosmo Ist 
of Tuocany, by one of the pupils of Angiolo Bron- 
zino, Cristoforo del Alt isairno , in the museum of 
portraits of Paul Jove, and all reduced to a uniform 
size to omaraent one of the cornices of the Museum 
of the Uffizi. (Lanzi, " Istoria pittorica della 
Italia," second edition, vol.1, p,212.) 



55, 



III. 



Po.t_.^ or the -^^ 2£ ?-i -«.^ 5^^^ 
and of the Collection of Ainbas. 



vmo «. this famous Paul Jove, Bi^oP of 

, , * rfo^ree of credit can be given to 
Hoc era, and what degree oi 

• I,-. „-,n.erv? To begin with, *at 
the effigies m his gallery. 

authority has the Plorentine portrait? 

(AXl these port-its have ^^- copied 
in the -theraffocted style o^^B---; ,,,,,3, 
Altissimo evidently receiv 
these copies are very n™-°^=;, ,^^, ^pr 11 W. 

Paul J°^^,"^%f'" 52 He v,as, then, 

1«3. -Vi!%?rtsen'or t;e^ty ^ears old *en 
not more than fifteen ol ^ j^ ^,ere not 

they «re ^-^-t^^' ^"^ ^^T^er'e "as found, in 
ions in ^^oing «=^"^'^^^- j the Villa Mondragone, 
1814, in Ihe great hall of jn p^^^geati , another 
belonging to r'-«/°^^^^';Jch was an excellent 

--ru vLHo ;=s=, . .3^in- - 

"3:S:l^hL,d.^=Tn1S'. r. «re carried to the 
Borghesi Palace at Rome.) 



5G. 

Paolo Giovio enjoyod innaense riches. 
He built a Palace KTuseum on the banks of Lake Gomo, 
upon the ruins of the superb Villa of Pliny the 
Younger. A long gallery occupied the center of 
the building, and there he accumulated, at a great 
expense, the pictures of the most celebrated per- 
sonages in arms, letters and the arts, Tliere is 
fovind in tlie collections of Botarri and of Ticozzi 
many letters of Giovio to Gorao de Medici s, Doni, 
Aretin, Titian, Sansovino, and other artists and 
illustrious persons, asking for Italian portraits. 
He ought then to have some exact pictures of some 
of the personages of his time; but no letter, 
either early or late, makes the slightest allusion 
to a portrait of Columbus, It was this individual 
who incited Vasari to write his golden book of the 
life of tlie artists of Italy; it was also he, it 
is probablB, \'iho urged him to add some portraits 



57. 

to his second edition. However, we know that 
the choice of these portraits was generally made 
with scmpulous care, since we find a blank space 
for which the author could find no authentic 

portrait . 

But this scruple of Vasari , was it carried 
out by Giovio, who only trouble-l himself about the 
truth when it was not too irksome? It can hardly 
be denied, in fact, that this man who, by his ov;n 
confession, had two pens, one of gold and the 
other of iron, according to circumstances aiid the 
need, who regarded it, as he says in one of his 
familiar letters, as one of the ancient privileges 
of history to enlarge or extenuate the vices, to 
raise or lower the virtues, according to the conduct 
and the merit of the personages, has shovm a very 
strong ground, for being and ought to be a much 
suspected iconographer. The result of this is 
seen in all the ancient and modem portraits. 



58. 

deliberately apochryphal, v/i tli v/hich his Musaim 
swarmed, in the midst of truthful effigies. 

It is sufficient, to convince anyone, to 
glance over tho second edition of his "Eloges," or 
"Histoire des Personnages de sa Galerie," Tlie 
first edition, v;hich goes back to 1551, one year 
before his death, had no engravings, and he can 
not be held responsible for the inaccuracies in- 
troduced in the second edition of 1575 by the un- 
skilfulness of the engravers and the bad choice 
that the editors made in his much confused collec- 
tion, 

Ginguene reports, in the Biographie 
Universelle, " it is tmknorm on the authority of 
Y;hat documents, that the engraved portraits were 
not faithfully copied from those v/hich ornamented 
the gallery of Giovio. But the incoherent ac- 
cumulation of the false and the true, in the 
painted collection, v/as his act. 



59. 

So, to speak only of ancient portraits, 
iconography not yethaving controlled by tlie glyptic 
and the lythoglyptic the pa* traits of Plato, Aris- 
totle, Ai'taxerxes, Scipio, &c., he had them fanci- 
fully executed, witii costumes of an incredibly 
bizarre effect. More anxiovis for tlie general 
effect than alarmed by any falsity, he followed 
this reckless method with many others, and so 
tainted very gravely the authority of his portraits. 
We can succeed only by the greatest efforts in 
discovering where the apochryphal ends or the true 
begins. And, indeed, hov; could this man, dis- 
tinguished as he was, raise himself above the 
criticism and the usages of his period? 

See the Collection of Fvilvitis Ursinus, 
that true Roman savant of tiie 16th Gentuiy, the 
greatest collector of portraits of tliat period 
with Paxil Jove, His ancient pictures are equally, 



60. 

for the most part, only conventional effigies. 

See Thevet . He al^o, thoiigh more re- 
mote, it is tin-ie, fi^om the soiii'ffes of information 
than Giovio, has given us a Christopher Goliimbus 
under the form of the solemn figure of a sort of 
ancient philosopher, with his astrolabe in his 
hand; h- is no more exact. The majority of his 
portraits, beginning v/i th Denis the Areopagite, 
are still only fanciful images, from the midst of 
\vhich may be detached a few rare and excellent 
likenesses, whose faithfulness is proved by their 
agreement with the original paintings and crayons. 

So with the scenes and effigies of the 
brothers De Bry, So vd th this picture of the 
Ducal Palace of Genoa, vrhere the ^leapolitan, Fran- 
cesco Solimeno, has represented Christopher '^oluo- 
bus landing on the soil of America and planting 
there the first cross. So, once more, of Giovio, 
who, v;hen ho lacked a portrait, had not the courage 



■iv 



61. 

to leave it out. At that time there v/as not so 
much fiiss made about such a matter; do we do much 
better to-day? 

Giovio possessed, according to all the 
probabilities, two portraits of Christopher Colum- 
bus, of which unfortunately he has not in the text 
of his "Eloges" indicated the origin or primitive 
type. This v;as not the usage, neither then nor 
later, as witness the Collections of Boissard and 
Bullard, of Preherus, of Nicolas Reusnerus, of 
Vacoaro and a thousand others. Even the portraits 
of the "Hommes Illustros" of Perrault are also 
nearly all silent upon the types after \*iiGh they 
were executed. 

Were Giovio 's pictures of Christopher 
Columbus purely imaginary portraits? V/ere they 
historical copies, or feature by feature, from 
some likeness reputed as executed after life in 
Spain? and of which the original must be lost 



62. 

to-day? It would be very venturesome to dare an 
opinion. One only of these portraits v/as engraved 
on v;ood, after the death of Giovi©, in the edition 
of his "Eloges" published at Basle. It ivas not 
the one which was copied in oil for Florence by 
the pupil of Eronzin, and which is described above. 
It is a much younger figure, the same as tliat in- 
dicated at the beginning of this article, as the 
most anciently engraved one with the name of 
Colirobus. Strictly speaking, we can see by the 
contour of the head, tliat it had v/ith the preceding 
one a c cmmon type. Yet they show some differences 
between themselves; the expression particularly 
has no analogy, even remote. If both have an 
aquiline nose, the characteristic prominence of 
the cheek-bones, described by the son of tiie 
Admiral, is a little less apparent in the engrav- 
ing in the "Eloges," and in place of that large 



Go . 

mouth, of v/hich Benzoni speaks, this sarae engraving 
gives a small mouth, v/i th curved upper lip, with 
abundant hair, kinky, in disorder, and which seems 

colored. 

One thing is remarkable. The figvire 
is no longer clothed with the mantle of the Floren- 
tine painting, but v;ith the robe of a Franciscan. 
This would not be an objection, because Christopher 
Columbus came into Castile, according to Andrea 
Bernaldez, toward the month of June, 14-96, with 
the habit of the ritual of St. Francis, and the 
cordon of the Order. 

("Vino el Almirante en Cast ilia en el mes 
de Junio de 1496, vestido de unas ropas de color 
de habito de San- Francisco de observanaia, e en la 
hechura poco menos que habito, y con cordon de 
San Francisco por devocion," Historia de los Reyes 
Gatolico3, cap.C>C<:xi. 

Bernaldez, who is the author of that 
history is often named: "El Cura de los Palacios.") 

Fray Bartolomeo de las Casas, in his un- 
published history, (Book 1, ch. cii) also refers 



G4. 

to this costume, or something like it, as having 
been ViTorn by the Admiral. "Very devoted to St, 
Francis," he nays, "he loved by preference a browrt- 
ish-gray. We have seen him at Seville clothed 
almost like a Franciscan mon]^," 

It was, in fact, in this robe that his 
body was clothed when it v;as deposited in the 
magnificent Convent of San Francisco at Valladolid, 
30 rich in precioxis curiosities of art and history, 
and v/hich the revolutionary barbarities destroyed 
in 1837, In the time of Ooliimbus it vias very 
coirmon, by a vow or as a fashion, to affiliate 
with some religious order so as to be able to wear 
the habit for the great events of life and make of 
it a shroud for the last long sleep, Many rich 
hidalgos have done the same in our day in Spain, 
At Manilla this custom is a general one, 

Peter Opmeer, the Dutch chi'onicler, has 
reproduced this same type in his "Opus chrono- 



65. 

graphiciim , " published in 1611. This porti-ait is 
also the one which Crispin de Pas appears to have 
follov/ed for the picture of a pleasant end which he 
had given of Columbus. At least, there is the 
same costume, the same position of the head and 
the hand; only the f igx^re is reversed as if it 
had been copied in a mirror. The nose is entirely 
different. The hand holds a mathematical instru- 
ment, and tl-e artist had added on his ovai respon- 
sibility a chain as an allegoi-y. as uerciiri also 
did later. This effigy of Crispin de Pas is 
ornamented, at the four comers, with the attri- 
butes of Astronomy. Around it is this inscription: 

"Primus novariTrn t errarum detector Chris to- 
phorus Columbus genuensis . 

Underneath are these words; 
"llova dum bj^jna, " 



6G, 



Finally comes the following verse :- 

"Ghristophorus genuit quern Genoa clara Columbus 
riumine pereviltus quo nescio priirtus in altum 
Descendens Pelagus, solem vertusque cadentem 
Dii-ecto cursu, nostro hactenus addita rnundo 
Littora detexi, Hesperis paritum Philippe; 
Audenda hinc aliis plura et majora relinquens," 

(The engraving is a part of a quite rare book, 
entitled "Effigies regvim ac principum, eorom 
scilicet quorum vis ac potentia in re nautica seu 
marina prae caeteris spectabilis est ,,, simima 
diligentia et artificio depinctis et tabellis aeneis 
incisae a Crispino Passaeo, Adjectis in singulas 
hexastichis Matthiae Quadi, chalcographiT 

It is without place or date, but must have 
been in the first years of the 17th century.) 



The question of the authority due to the name 
of Paul Jove, a cent anporai-y of Christopher CoIujth 
bus, and v;ho was already twenty- tliree years of age 
at the death of that great man, has been specially 
considered by Carderera, and this wise antiquarian 
has taken one of the portraits of the I.Iuseum of 
the Archbishop of Hoc era, not the one which is 
clothed in the Franciscan habit, but the painting 



67. 

of Florence. Y/ithout attributing to it the merit 
of an authentic likeness, he adopts it as a sort 
of probability in Imnnony vdth the written evidence. 

I will range myself willingly on the side 
of his opinion, though regretting that he did not 
have in hand the true Florentine porti-ait, and 
that the picture r produced by him at the head of 
his excellent dissertation may only be pretty nearly 
the one. This nearly appro acliing one gives him a 
partial right, whilst the real portrait would have 
caused his ingenious sagacity, with mucsh more 
justice, to be applauded. 

In fact, it presents, as a type, in 

support of its conclusions, the Goli:imbiis of the 

Collection of "One Hundred Illustrious Captains," 

engraved at Rome in 159 5, by Aliprando Capriolo, 

(Ritratti di Cento Capitani illustri con 
li lor fatti in guerra breveinente scritti, intag- 
liati da Aliprando Capriolo, & date in luce da 
Pilippo Thomassino w Given Turpino, 1596, in Roma, 
Gigliotti, ln-4^ .) 



A ne\7 Gdition of this book published in 
1600 contains soiiie additional portraits, quite 
badly engraved. The frontispiece is different.) 

Several of the portraits of this Collec- 
tion are imaginary. As for that of Columbus, if 
the primitive type v/as the portrait of Florence; 
if, in a word, it comes from the soui'ce of Paul 
Jove, it must be admitted, as in the cuse of 
etymologies, tliat it has changed veiy much on the 
v/ay . 

The nose seems straight at first glance 
and not aquiline, which probably comes from the 
position of the figure, presented nearly fizll face. 
Tlie long and quite abx:Qridant hair falls in waves, 
concealing the ears, Tlie figure is rather sc^uare 
than elongated. 

This is better. If, consulting only 
the poor engraving of Gapriolo, executed wi ■Qiout 
effect, one should be deceived as to the tint of 
the Admiral's hair, and suppose it was white in 



69. 

the painting, as the written traditions describe 

it, there is no doubt on this point in the text 

of the " Cento Gapitani ." The text says:- 

'•Goli:imbus had a clear complexion, blue 
eyes, v;ith black beard and hair , " (Era il Colombo 
di eamagion bianca, d'occhi a2airri e di pelo e 
capelli neri.) 

Such an essential difference would 
naturally solve the question. As for the effigy 
itself, we must take into consideration the altera- 
tions due to the engraver, vAio doubtless made some 
of his own; but there is some analogy in the 
features with those of the Florentine per trait; 
the gravity of the physiognomy is the same, and 
the accessories are identical. Thus the shirt, 
the doublet closing at the neck, the cloak draped 
over the shoulder, all see»a copied each fix)m the 
others. 

This portrait of Oapriolo is the one 
which was adopted by Landon for his "Galerie 



70. 



historique des hommes les plps_ celebres de t ous. 
les siecles et de toutes les nations," (Paris, 
1805-1809) It is a very ordinary book, v/hose 
engravings are good likenesses, but that I ought 
to state, because i t has been vddely distributed 
and because the effigies of which it is composed 
v^ere introduced into the copies de lux e of Michaud's 
" Biographie Universelle , " 

V/hat has been said as to the similarity 
of the accessories in the two preceding pea:* traits 
applies equally, word for word, to the portrait 
of the Collection of Ambras, of vAiich the learned 
Conservator of the Museums of Austria, Joseph 
Arneth, was vei^y willing to send me an excellent 
drawing as an aid to my recollection. This por- 
trait discloses a family likeness with tiie effigy 
of the book of Paul Jove, with the Florentine 
picture and the Gapriolo engraving. As it is 
seen nearly front face, as well as the latter, one 



71. 

can hardly judgo clearly of the form of the nose. 
There is nothing striking about the prominence 
of the cheek-bones; the eyes have the traditional 
color; the hair is gray and different from that 
of the"Oento Capitani", in that it is smooth and 
leaves the ears uncovered. Tlie figure i s not so 
old as that of the Plorentjjie picture. 

This picture appears to have belonged, 
from its origin, to the Collection of the Castle 
of Ambras, in the Tyrol, near Inspruck, foraied by 
the ArchdT.;l<e Ferdinand, Count of Tyrol, one of the 
sons of the Emperor Ferdinand 1, and consequently 
nephew of Qharles V. It was transferred in 1S05, 
to the City of Vienna, where it belongs to one of 
the principal museums. 

The portrait is a miniature in oil, quite 
expressive and painted on a panel, Carderera 
cites it as shov/ing a perfect identity v;i th the 
portrait engraved by Capriolo, That is too much 



72. 

to say, for the expression of the face is different; 
there is as much difference between the two images 
as there is betv/een the latter and that of Ihe 
"Studij", v/hich however does not exclude the family- 
air, which can be ascribed to all three of them. 

(The portrait of the Ambras was litho- 
graphed at the head of a German poem upon Christo- 
pher Columbus, published in Vienna by M. Pranl^l.) 

Before going farther v^i fti our examination 

of the portraits of Christopher Golumbas, I desire 

to render special thanks to Valentin Carder era, 

who has el^^cidated this difficult question vri. th 

so much talent, and who is a man of incomparable 

coui'age an;a zeal in natters of art. His knowledge 

is on a par with his coiirage, and it will be keenly 

regretted that the fruit of his long and laborious 

labors in iconography v/as limited to its first 

publications and was lost by people of taste. 

For more than twenty- five yeai's he ransacked all 

parts of Spain, searching those anciait religious 



asyliims, for the most part deserted noxt, and where 
only the hoots of the owls distuit) the silence. 
There he made collections, and drew from the most 
authentic cor.Tmeraorat ive and sepulchral statues the 
portraits of Kings, Queens, great captains, writers, 
and others. He aiYiassed a collection of more than 
three hvindred, of whidi we saw some specimens at 
the Universal Exposition. They were all unpub- 
lished effigies, to v/hich were added some portraits, 
equally precious and unpublislied, of personages 
of the 16th Cent^iry, already known by other en- 
graved pictures, 

Ihe ravages of time had been considerably 
felt upon these relics of the 11th, 12th, 13th and 
14th Centuries v/hai Garderera drev/ copies of than. 
Since that tine very much has disappeared entirely 
in the civil wars, by fire and winds, and the 
tearing down of ancient churches and old monasteries, 



74. 

the engraving and publication of a selection of 
these conquests fror.i the destructive tooth of time 
and the genius of evil has been suggested. 

Among the personages of v/han no picture 
is knotm, and viho are inclvided in this Collection, 
is Dona Sancha, Queen of Leon; Dona Constance, 
Queen of Toledo; King Henry 1; several Kings and 
Queens of Aragon and its most illustrious Captains: 
Moncada, Polch de Gardona, &c,; the archbishops 
Don Lopez, Fernandez de Luna and Don Alfonzo of 
Cartagena, Carderera also malces to live again the 
statues of t]:© Kings of Castile, Don Juan II, and 
his wife, wi-Qi that of the Constable Don Alvar de 
Luna, and that of the Prince Don Juan of Aragon, 

Finally, it is he v/ho v/as able to discover 
at Segovia the original effigies of the Catholic 
Kings , Ferdinand and Isabella, and those of their 
first children, in the picture above referred to. 



75. 

and the value of vyhicih v/ithout him would have been 
entirely unappreciated at the National Museum of 
Madrid, He also had the good for tine to discover 
a portrait of the great but unfortunate Prince of 
Viana, of which no type was previously Icnovm, and 
for which Quintana so long vainly searched, in 
order to ornament his Lives of Celebrated Spaniards, 

Honor to these great-hearted men, who 
were v/illing to sacrifice time, fortune and even 
life itself in such useful labors. Xlhat praises 
should v;e not bestow upon the modest Oarderera, 
if he asked for any rev/ard for all his care and 
the efforts he consecrated to merit them, 





76. 
IV. 
Portraits of the Genovese Goast and of Naples., 



Has any other locality in Italy been 
more fortiinate than Florence and Rome? Not so 
far as I know. At Genoa they possess only fancy 
busts; one of the last cent;-:ry, the other sculptur- 
ed by a modem artist, named Peschiera. The 
oldest of these two marbles has been shown in 
several publications, notably in tlie translation 
of the work of Navarrete upon the voyages and 
discoveries of the Spaniards, (Vol, 2) 

The apochryphal effigy of Peschiera was 
engraved at the beginning of a book entitled, 
"Godice Diplomat ico Colombo Americano," a collec- 
tion of unprinted articles, published by Spotorno 
in 1823, by order of the Decurions of the City of 
Genoa, 



77. 



("Godice Diplomat i CO C olorabo- Americano , 
ossa raccolta di doetii neriti origTnali e inediti 
spettanti "aT 'CrTatoforb Color.ibo ; publ icato per 
ordine degl' illrni Dec urionl della citta di Geneva ." 
Genova, 1323, in- 4 to J 

The engraving, quite vrBll done, v/as exe- 
cuted (burinee) by a deaf-r.iute, named Fil, Gastelli, 
it is a v;r etched head of a Roman Q-nperor, with 
short hair, black and curly, having a toga clasped 
upon the shoulder. The " Codice D iplornatico " being 
an official work, some persons liave been persuaded 
in regard to the bust whldi decorates it, and have 
celebrated its authenticity,- A certain Giu, 
Buccinelli has reen^-^raved it, not to say scratched 
it, with this legend:- 

"II vero Ritratto di flristoforo Golan bo 
genovese, " 

That is to say:- "The true Portrait of Christopher 

Columbus, the Genovese," and this fine work (J) 

appears at the beginning of a pamphlet published 

at Milan in 1825, 



73. 

( " Orazione in lode di Gristoforo Coloinbo dir 
coprltore del IIuovo I.Irmdo eon note s tori die ed 
una dissertazione in torno la vera patria di ~l"ui ." 
Without any name of an author) 

Let us note, in passing, a curious 
souvenir of Columbus whicsh is found in the Council 
Hall of the Senate in this same city of Genoa, in 
the Ducal Palace, There enthroned, upon a pedestal, 
is the heavy and material bust sculptured by Pes- 
chiera,- In the pedestal is a coffer, full of 
important papers in regard to the history of the 
" Scopritor d.e l l * America ," Among other things 
there are three autograph letters by him; and a 
pen-drav/ing ii'^ich is also said with less reason 
to be from his own hand, 

Tlie drawing, sketched very spiritedly, 
represents the triumph of Columbus, It is can- 
posed of eight figures, enclosed in a frame of 
about ten inches in width by ei[jat in height. 
In the center is a chariot vAiose paddle- v/he els are 



79. 

immersed in a slightly agitated sea. Upon this 
chariot are seated tvro figures, each holding by 
the hand a sail blovm out by the v/ind. The first 
figure is "Providence",- At the left is the 
Admiral, bearing his nane "Colombo", written across 
his breast. Let us hasten to say that the figure 
which bears this nane offers only one shapeless 
feature and general effect, and that from this no 
one could draw any induction whatever in order to 
represent the real effigy of the personage. 
"Constancy" and " Toleranc e" glide over the sea in 
advance of the chariot after the fashion of Mytholog- 
ical Tritons. "The Christian Religion " and 
.gustice" follow behind it. Above flies " Vict or y " 
bearing palms; "Hope", with an anchor in one hand, 
and "Reno^jm" v/ith a double trumpet, bearing upon 
the banners which are attached to it the name of 
the city of Genoa . Behind the car, emerging fran 
the bosom of the sea are vaguely seen some shapeless 



80. 

features, inarking the place v/hei-e some of his 
beaten enemiec have sunk : Mostri superati : 
"Envy", without doubt, and " I(;norance ", which 
strucgled so bittoi-ly and long against the great 
Navigator, 

The marine historiographer, I.I, Jal, who 
has given a description and a fae simile of this 
singular design, in " France Llari t ime " , (vol, 2, 
p, 263- 67) supposes that it comes from the hand of 
Columbus himself. The reasons he alleges are 
that he has every where found the autograph writing 
of Columbus giving, by the side of each fi^^re, 
the name of the personage represented. The 
margin of the paper is charged v/i th indications 
for the painter, attributed to the Navigator, and 
in one comer what is supposed to be his signatiH'e. 

To begin with, all the presumptions are 
against such assertion,- The mind refuses to admit 



81. 

tliat so modest a man as Golir.ibus over designed his 
OY/n apotheosis, like the far-seeing priest who 
left a s-um of money to pay the expense of his 
beatification. Besides the drawing, projected for 
some ceiling, indicates already the inflated and 
affected style which reigned at Genoa and Florence 
at the end of the 16th Century; and the v/riting 
upon the desigp is not by Oolumbi-is, whilst the 
letters reproduced in the "Godice DiploiTiatico" 
appear to me to be autographs. 

The pedestal, surmounted by the bust, 
in the Council Hall, has been lithographed in the 
same work by Gervasoni,- 

At Savona, a monument voted to the Admiral 
in the 17th Century, has remained only a project, 
and all the noise that was made about it then has 
resulted only in a few modest inscriptions. 

At Castillo di Cuccaro, in the Montferrat, 
between Alexandia and Casale , some Seigneurs by 



82, 

the name of Golurobus shov7 an ancient bust painted 
upon wood, Trfiich they claim is the true portrait 
of the Admiral, taken from life. It is the portrait 
of the "Cento Oapitani ", of v/hich the Abbe Fran- 
cesco Je'rome Gancellieri gave out in 1809 an en- 
graving of small size, at the head of a learned . 
work on Christopher Columbus. There are but 
slight differences in the length and arrangement 
of the hair, and certain details of the c cetume, 

(" Hotizie stor iche bibliograf iche di 
Cristoforo Colombo di Cvc^ro nel '''onforrato 
discopritore ~dell ' America raccolte da Francesco 
"Cancellieri . Roma, 1809. 

The engraving from the burin is signed 
Jean Petrini. It is very ordinary, and the feat- 
ures, quite film in the Capriolo effigy, are rounded 
and effaced, 

A certain Joseph '^alendi has engraved 
this same portrait with a burin, with this legend: 
"Dal ritratto ant ico presso il sr, Fideli Quglielmo 
Colombo di Cuccaro ." ~ 

Another engraving, also by the burin, 
of very small size, and wiliiout any engraver's 
name, is stamped with armorial bearings in the 
background,') 



S3, 

At '^ucureo, v^hidi also claims to have 

been the cradle of the Great Navigator, there may 

be seen, in the Hall of tlie Gonrwie, a portrait 

which has been honored with a Dissertation and has 

persuaded no one. It is no tiling else tlian a copy, 

however, sanewhat changed, from tlie Florentine 

picture, and beai^s the same inscription,- 

(The Dissertation was entitled:- "^ulla 
patria p ropria-.ente detta di Gristoforo Oolombo. , 
dissertazione di Felice Isnardi, " P inerolo, 1838 , 
The author mak"eS the painting of Gucureo to go 
back three centuries.) 

The most beaut if i.a of the apochryphal 
Italian portraits of Goltimbus is a superb painting 
by Francesco Mazzuoli, called the "Pamesan", which 
came from the Fames e Gallery, and now decorates 
the Musee Bourbon at Naples,- 

(See "Real Museo Borbonico ", Napoli, 1837, 
with notices by Guilielmo Bechi, vol. Ill, plate 3. 
see also the GatalogLie of the I.luseam, printed by 
the learned Bernardo Quanta.) 



84, 

Tlie hero, sv/ord at his side ard. rin^ on 
his left hand, the right hand gloved holding a 
medal, is seated near a v/indow, befox'e which is 
placed a suit of annor« He is clothed in a very 
rich black costiiine. The doublet, closed over the 
breast, is opened at the two arms. The head, 
ornamented vd th curly black hair and a heavy beard 
and moustaches, is covered v/ith a rod cut-av/ay cap, 
with plume attached to a clasp bearing a ship 
passing the Colvmms of Hercules, 

All this is very brilliant and very in- 
genious for the modest Columbus, and seems like 
phrophesying after the fact. Nevertheless, it was 
this portrait which the American, V/illiam Prescott, 
who did not bother himself at all with the icono- 
logical question, and viio thought only, in short, 
of putting before his readers a beautiful picture, 
has given as the portrait of Columbus in his book 
upon Ferdinand and Isabella, 



85. 

That picture, v/hich has been proclaimed as 
a contemporaneous one, for want of a remembrance of 
the fact tliat the artist v;as only three years old 
when the Genovese Navigator died, is entirely op- 
posed to all the authentic data on ttet subject. 
The author did not think of that for a moment. 
The curled locks, the moustaches, the long beard, 
the slashed cap, the plume, the gilded buttons, 
the festooned sleeves, the lace wristlets, the 
gloves, the ring on the finger, the solemn and 
great-Lord air of the figure, taken altogether, — 
nothing in all that recalls anything either of the 
personal appearance of Christopher Columbus or 
of the costume of his epoch. They are rather 
the attributes and elegances of some easy coiortier 
of the retinue of Francis 1, or Henry II of France, 
of Charles V or Philip II of Spain, This portrait 
has been baptized with the name of Columbus; just 



86, 

as the name of the Pomarina v;as given to the 
famous portrait in the Trib-une of Florence; in 
the same way as an Ariosto is made of the Titian of 
the Gallery of Manfrini, at Venice; as Guide Reni's 
beautiful ideal head has been transfonned into that 
of Beatrice Cenci, after having been catalogued for 
tv;o hundred years in the Golonna Gallery under the 
title of a simple figure of a Sibyl :- 

"Shall it be a God, table or wash-basin?" 
This pretended portr it of the Gen ci had 
belonged to the Golonna Gallery down to the first 
years of the 17th Century, when it was takaa, by 
the marriage of the daughter of the last Grand 
Constable, into the Barberini family, vdio possess 
it now. 

At the beginning of his "History of the 
Hew World", (Madrid, 1793) Vamoz has placed another 
portrait, in a cuirass, a riiff, cm- led hair, beard 



87. 

and moustaches. This fancy was engraved wi lii a 
burin, by Fernando Selma, after a drawing by 
Mariano I.Iaella, 



88, 
V. 

Portrait noted at Vicenza by M, Joiiiard, 



There is still left one Italian portrait, 

the one which remained unknovm till these later 

times, and v;hich was taken into the Vicenza Gallery 

a short time since. It has been described by 

Doctor Joraard, He says;- 

"Ghance directed my attention to it, 
attracted besides by the ancient appearance of the 
painting and by its beauty, above all by the noble 
character vrhich was apparent in the figux'e. The 
nose is aquiline, forehead large and hi^, hair 
light in color as well as the eyes, although some- 
what bronzed by time; the face was an elongated 
oval; the look is firm yet mild, with an expres- 
sion full of candor. The chin is bearded, and 
the beard ends in a point, as in the portrait of 
Ferdinand the Catholic and nearly all of those of 
Philip 1 and Charles V." 

In the background is this inscription: 

" Chr is t opho rus Columbus", vdiich M, Jomard believes 

to be as ancient as the painting. 



89. 

(See the Bulletin of the Geographical 
Society, already cited. M. Jomard has had a 
lithograph made of this portrait.) 

Under the protection of the opinion of 
such an illustrious savant, this portrait merits 
without any doubt a respectful and attentive ex- 
amination. Unfortunately I am unable to persuade 
myself to admit as authentic a pictui'e which meikes 
a personage of the 15th Gentiiry wear a doublet, 
a large ruff, moustaches, the long pointed beard, 
this short and well combed head of hair, all those 
things v^hich are only met with in the time of Philip 
III or Philip IV; that is to say nearly a, century 
and a half after the death of Columbus. The ruff 
only began to be worn tinder Charles V, Very 
small then, quite small yet in the t jme of Philip 
II, it grew extraordinarily under Philip III, and 
held its own under Philip IV, It is from this 
latter epoch that the Vicenza portrait has borrowed 
the anachronism of its immoderate ruff, which gives 



90. 

to the figure the air of a head of St, John the 
Baptist in a great platter, as v/as said in France 
at the tiiiie this fashion v/as in vogue. Indeed, 
this style of ruff was cornmonly called "a St, John 
Baptist". 

We can understand how the elevated char- 
acter of the figure engrossed the attention of 
M. Jornard, who was undoubtedly attracted by the 
"besaty of the work of the brush and struck by the 
inscription. But the anachronism is too formal, 
and the inscription proves nothing. Under Fer- 
dinand the Catholic they wore short, strai^t hair, 
as is seen in the picture of that Prince by Del 
Rincon, and as appears from the true image of 
Fernando of Cordova, placed in the beginning at 
Grenada, in the church of San Geronimo, where he 
was buried, 

I do not knovf to what portrait of Ferdi- 
nand the Catholic M. Jomard ma^ies allusion, but, 



91. 

it is very certain, if the picture is bearded it 
is apochryphal. During his reign the beard was 
shaved, and it is always in that way that tlie 
most authentic effigies of Ferdinand represent 
him, as well as Gonzalvo de Cordova, Antonio de 
Leya, Antonio de Lebrixa (Antonius Nebrissensis) 
and a n-umber of other contemporaries, 

(In the Gallery of Prince Esterhazy, at 
Vienna, a picture by Jean Baptiste Tiepolo may be 
seen, representing Ferdinand the Catholic, con- 
qLieror of the Moors, in the battle of Cadiz, The 
King wears a liglit blonde beai^, v/i 1hout otlier 
moustaches than little v/isps at the comers of his 
mouth. This is a mistake of the fashion. 

Bom in 1592, and dying in 1769, Tiepolo 
did not belong to an epoch when any pains was taken 
to ascertain the truth about effigies or the reality 
of the costume. He has represented in his Ferdi- 
nand the Catholic only a creature of his own 
imagination,) 

The history of the beard, v/hich has given 
rise to so many learned and curious works, is one of 
those details of which critical archaeology ought 
to take account. A mark of dignity and independ- 



92. 

ence among us, so worn by the primitive race, the 
hair on the chin was later one of the causes of the 
schism which, under Pope Nicholas I, embroilled 
the East with the West. Prom the 12th Century 
to the end of the 15th, the fasliion of shaving 
reigned almost absolutely in Prance, in Gemiany 
and in Italy, Tlie latter half of the 14th Century 
witnessed the growth in Spain of the singular 
luxury of false beards, similar to the solemn 
fasliion of wigs under Louis XIV, ProBi the first 
years of the 13th Century no one in the Peninsula, 
king, courtiers, commoners, or the populace, wore 
a natural or artificial beard. Tliis was an ap- 
pendage left to some monks, to those poor hermits 
to vdiose level the fashion disdained to descend, 
and probably it was the same with the sailors of 
Columbus in the midst of the dif fictxlties of their 
first voyage. 



93. 



(That would be certain if the original 
drawings of the engravings of the rare book of 
nine leaves, which is in the possession of the 
Library of Milan, and which represent the Garavels 
of that expedition, were, as Bos si supposed, from 
the hand of Golurnbus himself. These engravings 
are upon wood, and v;ere executed at Rome in 1493, 
One of them represents the Discovery of the " Insula 
Hyspana", (Santo Domingo; two G on q ui s t ado r es ^ 
bearded, seated in a canoe, ai'e approaching the 
shore and offering presents to naked savages. It 
is, however, to be noted that the book, a Latin 
translation of the letter of Golurnbus to Rafael 
Sanxis (Sanchez) by Leandro Gosco, is a v/ork en- 
tirely Roman, executed according to the Roman 
style. The drawing of it is, besides, too bar- 
barous to be attributed to Golxambus, who, according 
to the little v;e know of his edijcation, drew very 
well , ) 

Tlie fashion of shaving began under Ferdi- 
nand III, called the "Saint", (1217-1252 Saint 
Ferdinand was entitled King of Leon) . 

More tlian a century afterwards, Henry, 
Count of Transtamare, King of Gas tile, (1356-1379) 
allowed his beard to grow. His successor, Don 
Jixan I (King of Gastile and Leon, 1379-1390), and 
King Henry III, (King of Gastile, called the "Infirm", 
1390-1406) did the same. But Don Juan II of 



94. 

Castile (1416-1454), Don Juan II of Ara,-on, father 
of Ferdinand the Catholic (1425-1470), and Henry IV 
of Castile (1454-1474) were always shaven. 

Under Ferdinand the Gatliolic all without 
exception in Spain were sliaven, following the ex- 
aniple of the Master. It is very easy to be con- 
vinced of this, in examining the personages of the 
Spanish pictiires, sciilptures, drawings and en- 
gravings, which have coiTie down to us from tliat 
time. The beard appeared in the Peninsula v/ith 
Charles V. In the satne way as the first of the 
Plantagenets invented an enlarged shoe to hide an 
excresence which he had on one foot, so Francis I 
wore his hair short on accoxmt of a wound in 
the head; and no Charles V let his beard grovf 
to conceal the deformity of his Bergundian lip 
and of his too pi-ominent lower jaw, - so much so 
that the beard was a fashion of Bergundy, 



95. 

"Barbe au men ten 
Sautez, Bourguignon, " 
" Beard on the cheek, jur.ip, Bergundy" says a pop- 
ular song of the time of the Arrnagnac wars. To 
invoke the fashion of the reign of Charles V in 
order to justify the costume of a hero who died 
only six years after the birth of that sovereign, 
is to run the risk of going to meet an error. 

There is nothing to fix the authenticity 
of the inscription. Nothing is more ca.Tnion, as 
M, Joraard knows better than we do, than the ad- 
dition of signatures, of dates, of inscriptions 
upon pictures. Here is a recent example, 

A beautiful portrait, on foot, of an vm- 
known v/oman, given as svida, and the painting of 
which, life-size, was attributed to Bonifacio, 
was brought from Spain some years ago. It was 
offered to M, Agi:ado, the father, who refused it 
for lack of authenticity in the attribution of the 



96, 

painter. The opera of the Queen of Gypms was 
then being given, in which Barroilhet was playing 
In one of the scenes of the opera tliere appeared 
the widow of the King of Cypinis, James II, tlmt 
Catherine Oomaro who yialded the island to tiie 
Venetians in 14S9. \Vliat did the proprietor of 
this nameless portrait do? He had skilfully 
written on the backgroimd of the picture the name 
of CatlTorine Cornaro, and it was revarnished over 
the inscription. Then, knowing BarroiUiet was 
very curious about pictures, he offered him tlie 
portrait. Tliat artist paid him a thousand "ecus" 
for it, and the picture appeared at its sale wi tli 
the double apocryphal attribution. Everybody was 
deceived by it. But it is not, however, even a 
portrait of that period to whicli it referred, 

Tlie portrait noted by M, Jomard ahows, 
it is true, all the attributes of the Italiai 



97. 

physiognomy. But that Christopher Goltimbus was 
a native of Genoa even, or of Savona, of Pales- 
trella or of Albisola; of Bugiasco, of Quinto or 
of Finale; of Gosseria betv/een I.Iillesimo and 
Gsircere; of Piacenza, Pradello or Onoille; of 
Guccaro, in the Montferrat; of GucT;ireo or of Nervi, 
near Genoa,- all of v;hi ch places dispute the honor 
of being his birth-place; or that he was, if you 
please, from Calvi, in Gorsica, as a learned 
magistrate of that Island claims to be able to 
demonstrate to-day; - in a v;ord, v/hether he was of 
Italian origin like the portrait or not, he v;as 
none the less of his epoch, while the portrait is 
not. 

But what matters a more or less happy 
discovery to the reputation of '.', Jomard? Tliis 
learned man, so justly celebrated, possesses in 
his elegant geographical and archaeological works 



98. 

enough other titles to the esteem and recognition 
of the educated v;orld. 

The archaeologist, linguist and traveler, 
Isidore de Loeivenstern \7ished to acknowledge his 
indebtness to the Great Navigator; he prod-jced 
an interesting article upon the report of Carderera, 
and ranged himself on the side of the partisans of 
the portrait of M. Jomard, Unfortunately, he 
does not appear to me to have brought forward any 
nev; proofs, and his notes, so full besides of 
science and vrisdom in regard to the costume of that 
period, only succeed at last in demonstrating the 
non- authenticity of the portrait, while all the 
time showing the erudition of the critic. 



;*• 



99. 
VI. 
Conclusion,- 

A portrait of Christopher Columbus was 
mentioned, given as a variant by the brothers De 
Bry, in a little medallion, placed opposite a 
medallion of Americus Vespucius, in the Great 
Voyages, Those medallions, or rather the two 
faces of a medal, form a part of the engraving 
entitled:- ** America retectio ", placed at the 
head of the preface of the fourth part of the 
" America ," 

That figure, reproduced by Herrera unde3>- 
neath the engraved title of the first decade, in 
the first book of his history, is entirely differ- 
ent from that which Mercuri engraved. The author 
takes his inspriation from the types of Florence 
and Ambras. The hair, more bushy than in the 



L.tfC. 



100, 

Florentine head, reminds one of Titais. 

In the subjects with isftaich they ornament- 
ed their book the same engravers twice intro(iiced 
the Great Navigator on foot. One of these is at 
the beginning of the fourth part of the Great 
Voyages. They represent him standing upright upon 
his Caravel, an astrolabe in his left hand and the 
right resting upon his sword; at his feet is a 
cuirass,- There is no need of adding tlmt these 
are purely fanciful, like another ColiJmbus on 
foot with his family, which appears at the beginr- 
ning of an English history of Jaimica, by Bryan 

Edv/ards , 

The Biscayan, Juan de la Gosa, the pilot 
of the Adj-niral, in 1500, addressed a letter from 
the Nev;- Continent, whidi was a remarkable work for 
that epoch and became very celebrated. After 
n^2nerous vicissitudes this precioua letter passed 



101, 

into the Cabinet of M, Walckenaer, at whose death 

it was bought by Spain, 

(M. Jomard made a copy of it, which he 
published in the 1st, 3rd and 5th editions of his 
"Monxjments de la Geographie, " 1855.) 

La Cos a, very likely in order to maJce 
some allusion to his illustrious chief, drew a 
bust of St, Christopher carrying the child Jesus 
on his shoulders, Ferdinand Denis would not be 
long in seeing in this figure the likeness of the 
Admiral himself. Unfortunately, the head of the 
Saint is bearded and without character; it is 
besides of too small size for our discussion to 
find it a very useful docvinent,- 

In short; there are seven or eight 
types which can hardly be talcen seriously; the 
portraits of the brothers De Bry and De Thevet, 
of the Houses of Veraguas and Berv,rick, of Parme- 
giano at Naples, of M, Jomard at Vicenza and of 



102,^ 

Peschiera at Genoa, &c. There is the doubtful 
effigy of the "Eloges" of Paul Jove, and finally 
the hardly certain but less improbable portrait 
of Florence and the families of Borghesi and 
Parnesi, fx'om vdience come, in a more or less direct 
v/ay, that of I.Ialpica, that of the Library of 
Madrid, that of the Ambras collection and that of 
Capriolo; there is the fullest opportunity for a 
choice, Tlaere is nothing definite; there is 
nothing clearly authentic. Here is an evident and 
positive proof,. 

In the last garter of the ISth Century 
several sovereigns and learned men began to sug- 
gest some prizes for the eulogy of Columbus, 
At last, blushing not to have erected a monvmient 
worthy of him, after tliree centuries and a half of 
reflection, it v/as decided to treat him like so 
many other victims of their genius. 



105. 

"Tous nous crions : A bas les f ous I 

On les persecute, on les tue, 

Sauf , aprds un lent examen, 

A leur dresser une statue 

Pour la gloire du genre hvimain." 

(We all cry, Doim with the foolsl- we 
persecute, we kill them, provided at last, after 
a slov/ examination, a stattie is erected to them, 
for the glory of the human race) 

As Beranger foresaw, they dreamed then 

at Genoa of paying off the debt of both the Old and 

the New World, and they prepared to dedicate, upon 

the sqviare of Ac qua Verde , a colossal statue in 

marble to this great man,- to this sublime lunatic, 

one of the heroes and martyrs of humanity; so 

Tonhappy v;hile living, so unfortunate after his 

death that even his name was not attached to tiie 

boon of his discoveries. The city, besides its 

'•Godice Dip lomatic o " sent out a notice appealing 

to the zeal of science, and collected the most 

authentic documents in regard to the true portrait 



.1 



104, 

of the Navigator,- 

The I.Iemoirs of Joinard. and Gar dare ra 
are the responses to this solemn appeal. At 
the same time it engaged the celebrated Florentine 
sculptor, Bartolini, the autlTor of the colossal 
bronze bust of Napoleon I, v/hich was placed over 
the main door of the I.tuseum of tlie Louvre, to 
execute the proposed statue. The death of Bar- 
tolini caused this difficult londertaking to go to 
a Genovese sculptor, Preccia, v/ho was established 
at Florence, "What did this artist do among all 
these diverse types scattered about him, and all 
of which are at loggerheads with each other? 
He took refuge in his imagination, and, under the 
critical eye of the Genovese Committee', the monu- 
mental effigy of Columbus vnll be in the end only 
an ideal figure. The model of the statue is 
completed, the roa^n. outline of the marble has 
been actually executed at Carrara; but, by a 



105. 

deplorable fatality, which seems to attach to tl-e 
name of Columbus, the unfortunate sculptor will 
not be able to put the finishing touches to his 
woi-k; he was suddenly stricken with a violent 
madness and threw himself from a vandow with a 
chisel in his hand,- 

Truly, as was said at the beginning, it 
is to be greatly feared that the only portraits 
from nature that exist of Christopher- Golunbus 
ax-e the v/ritten ones,- Fernando Golunbus and OviedQ, 
these are probably the true painters of the Admiral. 
I will be very careful, meanwhile, to show an 
exclusive inflexibility against the Florentine 
type, I would only desire a less equivocal type, 
and I ask myself whether it can be presximed that 
Oviedo and the son of Columbus, and again after 
them Girolamo Benzoni, as well as Tor desi lias de 
Herrera, would have gone into such explicit detail 
about the appearance of tine great man if there had 



106. 

existed any a-uthentic portrait painted of him, to 
which they could have referred? 

Once more, it is to be feared that the 
features bequeathed to us by the brush are the 
prodvTCt of pure imagination, or after their state- 
ments,- 

"While endeavor i2ig to do their very best, 
those who liave followed this outline will undoubted- 
ly fall into an inevitable disagreement, - because, 
as was said at the beginning, what v;ritten or 
spoken description was ever worth a stroke of a 
pencil from nature, in the matter of a portrait? 

F, Peuillet de Conches. 

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